Franchitti started his career in his native United Kingdom in the early 1990s, competing in Formula Vauxhall and Formula Three and was also the winner of the McLaren Autosport BRDC Award in 1992. After Franchitti did not secure a single-seater drive in 1995, he was contracted by the AMG team to compete in touring cars in the DTM and its successor – the International Touring Car Championship. Despite 2 seasons with relative success, the series folded at the end of the 1996 season, again leaving Franchitti without a drive. Mercedes placed Franchitti in CART in 1997 with the Hogan Racing team.

Franchitti spent 6 seasons in CART, where he won 10 races with the Team Green squad that he joined in 1998; he failed to win a championship title, with a best final position of 2nd-place in 1999, behind Juan Pablo Montoya in a tie-breaker. Team Green moved to the IndyCar Series for the 2003 campaign, with Franchitti remaining in the team. Franchitti's first season for IndyCar was disrupted by an injury, but won his first races the following season. His break-out year came in 2007, when he won the rain-shortened Indianapolis 500 as one of 4 victories in his route to a first career championship title in a final-race title decider with Scott Dixon. At the end of the season, Franchitti was named as BBC Scotland's Sports Personality of the Year.

After an ill-fated move to NASCAR in 2008 (which ended after half a season)[2] Franchitti returned to IndyCar in 2009, driving for Chip Ganassi Racing.[3] Franchitti won on his 2nd start back in the series, and eventually took 5 wins as he won a 2nd championship, again in a final race championship decider against Dixon and Team Penske's Ryan Briscoe.[4] He retained the title in 2010,[5] again with a final race championship win over Penske's Will Power; Franchitti's strong form on ovals – including a 2nd Indianapolis 500 victory – allowed him to overhaul Power by 5 points at the final race. His 3rd consecutive and 4th overall title came in 2011, in which he battled Power for the championship the second time but the championship win ultimately was decided in favour of Franchitti, after the season's final race was abandoned due to a serious crash that resulted in the death of his close friend and former teammate Dan Wheldon.[6] A new car was introduced for the 2012 season, in which Franchitti only scored 1 victory – in the Indianapolis 500 – to become the 10th driver to win at least 3 Indianapolis 500's during a career.[7]

On 6 October 2013, Franchitti was involved in a serious crash in the Grand Prix of Houston, when his car flew into catch-fencing after contact with the cars of Takuma Sato and E. J. Viso.[8] Franchitti suffered 2 fractured vertebrae, a broken ankle, and a concussion in the crash. A month later, on 14 November, Franchitti announced his immediate retirement from motor racing on medical advice; he retired with 31 victories from 265 starts in his American open-wheel racing career,[9] a tally which put him in a tie for ninth on the all-time wins list with former teammate Paul Tracy.[10]

Early career

Franchitti was born in Bathgate, West Lothian, Scotland. While attending Stewart's Melville College in Edinburgh, he became interested in karting. Allan McNish credited a large part of the start given to himself, Franchitti and David Coulthard as being down to David Leslie senior and junior.[11] Franchitti won the Karting Scottish Junior Championship in 1984, the British Junior Championships in 1985 and 1986 and the Scottish senior title in 1988. He progressed to Formula Vauxhall Junior where he won the championship with four victories in 1991.

He graduated to the British Formula 3 Championship in 1994, where he finished fourth and won one race in his first year. However, he was not retained for 1995 which was his final year in single-seaters in Europe.

Instead, Franchitti was contracted by AMG Racing to drive a works Mercedes C-Class in the German Touring Car Championship and the related International Touring Car Championship, where he finished fifth and third respectively. He continued in the ITC in 1996, finishing fourth overall with one race win.

In 1997, Franchitti was offered a deal to become McLaren's test driver which would have seen him flying to Europe to test during the week, returning to America to race in CART. He ultimately turned this down, preferring instead to pour his energies into racing in CART for the Hogan team.

Franchitti tested for the Jaguar F1 team at Silverstone in 2000, but the car proved to be problematic. These troubles combined with him still recovering from neck discs ruptured in a crash at Homestead earlier that year. The test was ultimately a disappointment and the door to racing for Jaguar effectively closed.

A heavy crash in pre-season testing the next year ruined Franchitti's 2000 season, and he only won once at Cleveland in 2001. In 2002 he won the Vancouver Molson Indy. He dedicated his win to Greg Moore, who was killed in 1999 and was from nearby Maple Ridge, British Columbia. He finished fourth in Champ Car in 2002.

During the 2007 season, Franchitti survived two huge crashes which saw his car flip upside down both times. The first at Michigan saw him tangle with Dan Wheldon resulting in his car flipping before being hit again by Scott Dixon. The contact with Dixon was only inches away from his head and the accident saw seven cars (including Franchitti) retire from the race. The second flip came a week later at Kentucky. As Franchitti crossed the start/finish line to finish the race, he did not realise that the chequered flag had been waved and continued to race. He crashed into the back of Kosuke Matsuura flipping yet again and hitting the outside wall. Franchitti took full responsibility for the incident.

Franchitti won the IndyCar Championship with four wins finishing ahead of Scott Dixon by just 13 points. Dixon ran out of fuel on the last lap of the season-ending race, allowing Franchitti to take the win and the championship, his first championship win since Formula Vauxhall Lotus in 1993.

2008

Franchitti missed the 2008 Indianapolis 500 as he pursued a NASCAR career. He raced several races in the NNS for Chip Ganassi Racing's NASCAR team and only had a few top ten finishes; his best finish was 5th at the 2008 Zippo 200. He decided that IndyCar was his favourite to race in and so he rejoined the IndyCar Series in 2009 with Target Ganassi Racing and went on to win his second, third and fourth IndyCar titles in 2009, 2010 and 2011 as well as the 2010 and 2012 Indy 500.

2009

2009 marked a successful return to IndyCar for Franchitti scooping five wins, two-second and two third placings and taking the series championship in his second consecutive attempt over teammate Scott Dixon by 11 points.

2010

Franchitti got off to a steady if unspectacular start; through the first 5 races, Dario had 1 pole, 3 Top 5 finishes and 4 Top 10s. However, at the 94th running of the Indianapolis 500, it all came together for him. Starting on the outside of the first row (#3), Franchitti had the best car of the day, leading over 150 laps to take his 2nd win in the past four years. This is also his 24th win in American Open-wheel driving, placing him in the top 20 all-time. The win also makes him the 18th multiple-win driver in the history of the Indianapolis 500.[20]

In October, Franchitti travelled to Australia to compete in a special round of the V8 Supercar championship in which he and 17 other international drivers will pair up with regular V8 drivers in two 300 km (186 mi) endurance races at the Gold Coast Street Circuit, a former venue for Indycar. He will drive for Jim Beam Racing with Steve Johnson.

By finishing eighth in the 2010 IZOD IndyCar Series championship final at the Homestead Miami Speedway, and leading the most laps on top of qualifying in pole position, Dario overhauled Will Power's 12 points lead and took the 2010 IZOD IndyCar championship. In effect Dario had won all of the past three championships he entered when his 2008 absence is accounted for.

2011

Franchitti, again driving for Target Chip Ganassi Racing, won the season opening road race at St. Petersburg, Florida. He followed that win with additional wins at Texas Motor Speedway (28th victory). He took the pole and the win in the Milwaukee 225 for his 29th victory, tying him with Rick Mears for 9th all-time in American Open Wheel racing. In the final race of the season at Las Vegas, Franchitti had an 18-point lead over Will Power in the points standings. However, a 15-car crash on lap 11 caused the race to be red flagged. After a two-hour delay, IndyCar CEO Randy Bernard announced that Dan Wheldon had died from the crash and the race was formally abandoned. The drivers who were not involved did a five-lap tribute to Wheldon 10 minutes after the announcement.[21] Because the race was cancelled and Power was also involved in the crash, Franchitti won his third consecutive and fourth overall IndyCar championship. Since Power suffered severe damage, Franchitti would have won the championship if the race had continued; therefore, the early stoppage of the race had no effect on the championship points.

2012

Franchitti, again driving for Target Chip Ganassi Racing, had a slow start in the first four races. On 27 May, he had an emotional win of the 2012 Indianapolis 500. In reference to Dan Wheldon, Franchitti said in an interview after the race, "I think D-Dub would have been proud of that one."[22] The 500 would end up being his only win of the season and the last of his career, as Franchitti struggled against both Andretti and Penske's teams.

2013

In 2013 Franchitti improved on his 2012 season. At the Indy 500, Franchitti was running in the top ten for the final restart, but got loose in turn 1 and scraped across the turn 1 wall in a similar style to Takuma Sato's 2012 accident on the final lap. This brought out a final caution that found one of Franchitti's closest friends off the track, Tony Kanaan winning his first Indy 500 and his first win in a few years. After climbing out of his car, Franchitti was led to the infield hospital. Franchitti was cleared uninjured; and he walked to victory lane to hug Kanaan just before the broadcasting ended.

Career-ending crash

In the second Houston race, Franchitti collided with Takuma Sato and E. J. Viso on the final lap, causing Franchitti to become airborne and fly into the turn 5 catchfence in a similar manner to Kenny Bräck's crash at Texas Motor Speedway in 2013. 13 fans were injured by flying debris, and Franchitti suffered a spinal fracture, right ankle fracture, and a concussion.[23] Due to these injuries, as well as injuries caused by previous crashes, doctors told Franchitti that he risked permanent paralysis if he continued to race.[24] Franchitti then retired from competitive driving, but maintained his affiliation with Ganassi Racing by becoming a competition director.

NASCAR

Franchitti racing in the 2007 Ford 300 at the Homestead-Miami Speedway

On 1 July 2008, Franchitti's No. 40 Sprint Cup team was disbanded by co-owner Chip Ganassi because of a lack of sponsorship. Franchitti was running 41st in points in the Sprint Cup Series at the time, and Ganassi had been funding the team out of his own pocket. The entire No. 40 team was shut down, and 71 employees were released.[33] Franchitti would continue to drive for Ganassi in the Nationwide Series for the remainder of the season following the disbanding of the Cup team.

On 9 August 2008 Franchitti won his first career Nationwide pole at Watkins Glen.[34] Starting alongside Robby Gordon, Franchitti led 13 laps and came close to the win. He battled Jimmie Johnson throughout the day, but was overtaken by some drivers late in the race. Franchitti finished 5th while Johnson ran out of gas.

Sports car racing

Franchitti is well known for combining partial Sports Car racing schedules during his IndyCar and NASCAR career.

Simraceway game design

On 13 October 2011, 3 days before Franchitti's bid for a fourth IZOD IndyCar Series title and the death of his friend and fellow driver Dan Wheldon, it was
announced that he would be joining Wheldon in developing the vehicle physics on
Ignite Game Technologies’ online auto racing game, Simraceway. A vintage car racing enthusiast, Franchitti will be focusing on ensuring the authenticity of the game's historic and vintage cars "It's almost impossible to describe the feeling you get inside when you’re behind the wheel of an old race car but what I hope to be able to do is use my knowledge and experience to help the team at Simraceway replicate how it feels to drive,".[52]